It has been the most enduring nightmare in Indianapolis True Crime history -- the Oct. 26, 1965 torture-murder of 16-year-old Sylvia Likens.

Other crimes have involved a greater number of victims, often including children, but the villains in those stories were hardened criminals or madmen, and their acts of violence played out rapidly within a span of minutes or hours. In the aftermath of grief and anger good people could at least comprehend the chain of events that had just unfolded.

On the surface, the Likens murder is not much different from any number of heinous crimes. It was a Cinderella story without the happy ending -- a teenage girl left under the care of a strict authoritarian whose idea of discipline is physical abuse that escalates until the abuse victim dies. If that was the extent of it, this case would likely have been lost to history long ago like so many other long-forgotten murders.

This case was somehow more disturbing than other crimes, perhaps because:

* The abuse was carried out not just by the caregiver -- the notorious Gertrude Baniszewski -- but also by her own children, some as young as 10, and by other children in the neighborhood. For weeks, even months, the torture of Sylvia Likens was casual entertainment, something to do in the afternoon before dinner and favorite TV shows. At least a dozen children participated or at least watched, and none felt sufficiently disturbed to tell their own parents.

* Other adults occasionally came to the Baniszewski house for various reasons and saw Sylvia's battered appearance. None pushed to be sure she was safe.

* Sylvia herself and her younger sister Jenny had opportunities to tell adults at school or church -- they even had adult relatives living nearby. Neither said a word because, as Jenny would later explain, they thought it would only make things worse. Neither could conceive of the possibility that authorities would move to protect them, remove them from the house or arrest their tormentors.

Arrests did come, but only after it was over. On Oct. 26, 1965, Indianapolis police were called to 3850 E. New York St. where Sylvia's body lay on a mattress. Baniszewski told them the girl had been attacked by a gang of boys and she even produced a note written in Sylvia's own hand that seemed to confirm that story. But the cops could tell by the condition of the victim that this had been no single incident. Sylvia's body was malnourished and covered with sores, burns and bruises, many of them old. She had been branded in one spot by a hot metal object, and the words "I am a prostitute" had been etched on her stomach.

How it began:

Sylvia came from a large, poor family from southern Boone County, just northwest of Indianapolis. Her father, Lester Likens, had only an eighth grade education and worked a lot of different jobs to make a living. He'd had a laundry route, worked in factories and had even owned a small restaurant, though unsuccessfully. He had also traveled with carnivals selling food from a concession cart, and it was to this work to which he and his wife decided to return in the summer of 1965.

That meant finding someone to watch four of their children. The oldest, Diana, was grown and married. The two boys, Danny and Bennie, were placed with their grandparents, and that left the girls, Sylvia and Jenny.

Jenny was shy, insecure and limped from childhood polio. Sylvia was outwardly more confident and went by the nickname "Cookie". She was pretty, but always kept her mouth closed when she smiled because she had a missing front tooth.

A mutual friend introduced the Likens to Gertrude Baniszewski (then briefly going by the name Gertrude Wright), who lived in a big rented house at the corner of East New York and Denny, and was willing to look after Jenny and Sylvia for $20 a week.

Gertrude was already caring for seven of her own children -- Paula, 17, John, 12, Stephanie, 15, Marie, 11, Shirley, 10, and James and Dennis , 18 months. The six oldest children all had the last name Baniszewski because their father was Gertrude's ex-husband John Baniszewski. The youngest child, Dennis, had the last name of his father, Dennis Wright. Gertrude said he was in Germany serving in the Army.

From the beginning there was a clash between Sylvia and Gertrude's 17-year-old daughter, Paula, and this was the seed of what grew in that house during the months of July through October, 1965.

Then one day the money order from Sylvia's parents didn't show up on the day Gertrude was expecting it. Jenny later testified Gertrude "took us upstairs … and she slapped me, and said, ' Well, I took care of you two b___ for a week for nothing." The money order arrived the next day, but the key had been turned.

Gertrude was frail and underweight, but she had two weapons she used for corporal punishment -- a fraternity-style paddle and a thick leather belt left behind by her ex-husband, John Baniszewski -- an Indianapolis police officer.

Gertrude began using the paddle on Sylvia and Jenny for various offenses such as exchanging soft drink bottles for change at a nearby grocery. When she suspected Sylvia of stealing she used matches to burn the girl's fingers.

Neighborhood children began to crowd the home to participate in the torture. The children took turns practicing their judo on Sylvia, hurling her against a wall. Some began kicking and beating her. Others extinguished their cigarettes on her skin. As Gertrude and a gang of teen-agers watched, Sylvia was forced to undress in the living room and insert an empty Coke bottle into her vagina.

After the beatings, Sylvia was forced into a scalding hot bath so she would be "cleansed of her sins." She was severely beaten and burned for wetting her mattress while asleep and Gertrude decided that Sylvia was no longer fit to live with her children.

Near the end, Sylvia was no longer permitted to leave the house. She was thrown down the cellar stairs and locked in, given crackers for food and refused the right to use a bathroom. Gertrude Baniszewski announced to her children that Sylvia was a "prostitute, and she's proud of it; so we'll just put it on her stomach." She took a large needle and began to carve the words "I'm a prostitute and proud of it!" into Sylvia's stomach. Richard Hobbs, a neighbor boy, finished the etching.

When Baniszewski realized Sylvia might be dying, she forced her to write a note saying a gang of boys beat her. The plan was to blindfold her and dump her in nearby woods with the note. Sylvia tried to escape but Gertrude and one of the boys stopped her, beating her again and throwing her back into the basement.

Sylvia Likens died Oct. 26, 1965. Cause of death was determined to be brain swelling, internal hemorrhaging of the brain and shock induced by Sylvia's extensive skin damage. Sylvia also suffered from extreme malnutrition. She was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Lebanon.

The Baniszewski trial - May 1966

At her trial the following year, Baniszewski denied any knowledge of the torture, claiming the children must have done it all. She entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

On May 19, 1966, a jury found Baniszewski guilty of first-degree murder while Paula Baniszewski was found guilty of second-degree murder. Hobbs, along with Baniszewski's son John and another neighborhood boy, Coy Hubbard, were convicted of manslaughter. Gertrude and Paula Baniszewski were sentenced to life terms at the Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis. The boys were sentenced to two-to-21-year terms at the Indiana State Reformatory in Pendleton.

In 1971, the Indiana Supreme Court granted Gertrude and Paula Baniszewski a new trial due to "prejudicial atmosphere", but Gertrude was again convicted of first-degree murder on Aug. 5, 1971. Paula pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and served about two years in prison. The three boys were released on parole for good behavior in 1968, after serving about two years each of their sentences.

In September 1985, Gertrude Baniszewski was released on parole. She changed her name to Nadine Van Fossan and moved to Iowa where she lived in obscurity until her death from lung cancer on June 16, 1990. Paula married and moved to a farm in Iowa.

John became a lay minister in Texas and counseled children of divorced parents.

Hobbs died of cancer at the age of 21, four years after being released from the reformatory. Hubbard has had several brushes with the law. Lester and Betty Likens divorced. Betty remarried and died in 1998 at age 71. Jenny Likens Wade died in 2004 at age 54.